Southern California -- this just in

Dodgers hire former LAPD Chief William Bratton to review security after beating [Updated]

April 6, 2011 | 5:33
pm

Six days after a Giants fan was severely beaten during the Dodgers' home opener, the team announced Wednesday it was hiring former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton to review security measures.

"Bill Bratton is widely credited with spearheading modern community policing in America," Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said in a statement. "There is no one better to lead a top-to-bottom review of our current practices and make recommendations to be implemented now and into the future.”

A Northern California paramedic was beaten by Dodgers fans in the stadium parking lot on Thursday after the game.

Minutes before San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was beaten, he texted a relative to say that he feared for his safety, his cousin said Tuesday.

In the text message, he said he was "scared inside the stadium," his cousin John Stow said, adding: "He doesn't use that term loosely."

A short time later, after the game had ended, the 42-year-old paramedic and father of two walked out to look for a taxi and was attacked so brutally that he remains in a coma with a brain injury.

[Updated at 5:43 p.m.: Bratton is the chairman of Kroll, an international security firm that will oversee the report for the Dodgers. The Dodgers said in the statement that Kroll would begin to "assess policies and procedures related to security and fan services" immediately.

At a Tuesday news conference, County-USC doctors explained the severity of Stow's condition. They said he suffered a severely fractured skull and damage to the frontal lobe of his brain.

The left side of his skull has been removed to allow his swollen brain to decompress. And even without sedation, he probably would still be in a coma, said Dr. Gabriel Zada, his neurologist.